been slower than in other countries. In 1273 the hay maker got 22d. an acre; 21d. in 1400, with board; women laborers 8d. and fed themselves. The price for washing and shearing sheep was a penny a score; in twenty years sixteen were sheared for a penny, then ten, and finally eight. We read of one farmer at about the year 1500 who gave his women shearers 1.d. a day and fed them. And yet Joseph Arch tells us that agricultural labor, all things considered, fared better then than now. The price of meat and dairy products in England makes cattle raising more profitable than grain. Some one has said, . and it is very near the truth, that a failure of the turnip crop for two years would bankrupt England. Agriculture is therefore growing in importance hourly, and so are all questions involved in the feeding of that vast and rapidly increasing population. England is increasing her acreage as fast as she can, by reclamation, and reducing her pasturage. The culture of sainfoin, a crop good for six or seven years, has proved advantageous, also of buckwheat for fodder. In 1789, 9,000,000 acres were cultivated; in 1869, 36,100,153; in 1870, 46,177,370, of which 11,755,053 acres were devoted to wheat culture. How far that goes in feeding the English millions is best seen by a statement of the imports of wheat and flour from the United States for fifteen years. Year. Cwt. Wheat. Cwt. Flour. 1856... 5,542,983 2,892,518 1857. 2,819,934 1,464,867 1858. 2,576,791 1,764,795 159,926 216,462 1860.. 6,479,339 2,254,322 1861. 10,866,891 3,794,865 1862 16,140,670 4,149,534 1863. 8,704,401 2,531,822 1864. 7,895,015 1,745,933 1865. 1,177,618 256,769 1866. 635,239 280,792 1867. 4,188,013 722,976 1868. 5,908,149 676,192 1869. 13,181,507 1,711,000 1870.. 12,372,176 2,154,751 England cannot afford to raise her breadstuffs. She is compelled to make meat, hence the great preponderance of her agricultural work must be in the direction of hay and root crops. In these she is eminently successful. Of Scotch farming, it may be said that it has made great 1859... FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 43 advances in the last century, chiefly from the superior education of the agricultural class. So great have been the agricultural improvements that the climate is already perceptibly ameliorated, the winters commencing a month later, and the snow disappearing a month earlier. Yet until the breaking up of the clans and the large consequent emigration of the Highlanders to Canada, there was no husbandry in Scotland worthy of the name. It now produces the finest wheat in the United Kingdom. The farms range from fifty to a thousand acres; the latter, however, is exceptionally large. One fifth of the cereal crops are oats. The breeding of pedigree cattle and sheep commands the attention of the best Scotch farmers. The condition of farm laborers is far superior to that in England, and rural economy is better understood. Mr. W. Little, in a treatise on the technical education of farmers, says: "The success to which British farming has arrived is owing to mechanical rather than scientific causes. Drainage, steam culture, and a liberal use of capital we have tried; but now chemistry in its application to artificial manures is taking such a prominent position, it is of the first importance that our farmers should be educated, should have such a general knowledge of science as will serve them in their labors.” Great attention has been paid to the production of timber in Scotland; and the results of her experiments show that no crop pays better in the end, than trees. Larch and pine are the chief varieties of timber produced. French agriculture, like that of England, proves that industry requires freedom for its success. In lectures upon special cultures I have given the history of several movements, experimental and educational, which have been of iminense importance to this nation; but the want of land is the great want of the French farmer. Small farming in the department of the Nord is carried on to excess, "even to misfortune,” according to French authorities. In spite of the developments of manufactures, the population is in the proportion of one to two and a half acres, or greater than in any country except China. France produces almost as much wheat as the United States, upon a territory not larger than Texas. She has, through her work of acclimatization, done more than any other nation to improve the breeds of animals, changing the Spanish merino sheep into the superior French variety. She has also made great advances in veterinary science. She has made herself rich and great by the persistent development, side by side, of all the branches of agriculture and manufactures. The rapidity with which France has recovered from the effects of the late war, is due to the prosperity and hoarded wealth of the small land-holders, whose savings were laid upon the altar of patriotism; a good augury, we feel, for the ultimate success of the republic. It is in Holland, that country "redeemed by weeds from the dominion of the sea,” that we find the laborer and the land enjoying the highest prosperity. There is no waste land in the Low countries, and no waste of human power. Recreation with this frugal people is not so much rest as a change of occupation; and while neither art nor any higher culture is neglected, there is no subordination of the useful to these ends. Deep tillage is the characteristic of husbandry in the Low countries, and the most perfect adjustment of the system of rotation to the special conditions of the soil. “No manure, no coin; no coin, no commerce," has been on the lips of the Fleming for generations. The following table shows the diversity of products which would be obtained from-one thousand acres: Cercals and farm crops.. 387.34 50.66 25.22 26.38 59.83 139.19 31.08 19.17 186.58 124.55 Total 1,000.00 A great deal of machinery is used by the large farmers. Tanks for the collection of night soil are seen along the roadsides; parings of turf and animal droppings are carefully gathered and composted. Liquid manure is preferred on account of its freedom from weeds. An hectare is frequently treated with 50-100 hectolitres, especially for tobacco. We cannot wonder at the enormous crops which are obtained. Dung pits are made for the excrements of cattle. Ammoniacal fertilizers are so perfectly saved that the stables are fresh and sweet as a Flemisk ROTATION OF CROPS IN HOLLAND. 45 kitchen; and besides all these natural resources, manure is manufactured in great quantities. The commonest way is to add sulphate of iron to animal manures at the rate of one kilo of the sulphate dissolved in twenty pints of water, to the manure of twenty head of cattle. Cattle abound. The introduction of Durham cattle added one third to the value of this kind of stock; but other breeds are used. The rotation practiced in Flemish husbandry is as follows: First, potatoes; second, rye, with carrots; third, flax; fourth, rye; fifth, turnips; sixth, oats. This is for a poor, sindy soil. For the best soils: first, tobacco; second, colza; third, wheat, with clover; fourth, clover; fifth, rye; sixth, oats; seventh, flax; eighth, turnips. We have here the great principles of successful farming admirably illustrated-rotation, fine tillage, high manuring. Even flax growing, which is considered in England an exhausting crop, is made beneficial to the soil of Flanders, and gives an average crop of thirty-three or thirty-four hundred weight to the acre. Between Ghent and Antwerp a cow is kept for every three acres of land. The beet-root is of immense value to Holland, and also to France and Germany, in supporting their cattle and in giving additional value to the manure. Throughout Modern Germany, from the Baltic Sea to the borders of Italy and Turkey, the resources of science and education are fully utilized in the development of agriculture. The beet sugar culture, in which not less than one hundred and fifty colleges are giving practical instruction, is but one of many examples of the earnestness of government in this direction. Austria is giving great attention to the culture of maize, and the utilization of the whole plant, leaves, stalks, and grain. But it is in Russia, the great rival of the Pacific Coast in the production of cereals, that we find the most remarkable improvements. She is already in a position, through the unexampled development of her agricultural and manufacturing resources, to be the dictator of all Europe, because she can consume more of all that they produce, and can produce more of all that they consume. Her trade is worth nearly or quite 600,000,000 of rubles. Great Britain and the other European countries devoured over 100,000,000 rubles worth of her wheat in 1867; and she has been increasing her export at the rate of 20,000,000 rubles per annum. She has been exporting flax, and flax seed, tallow, raw wool, honey, wax and hemp, in a steady stream for years; while the unspent forces of a new and rising population are applied every year, to the land. Her marvelous advances in industrial education will be spoken of in another connection. The study of the details of experimental farming in France, Germany, Austria and now in Russia, should be a part of the training of every American farmer. In no European country can the time-honored privileges of class give way to the necessities and claims of agricultural labor without a conflict; while in America, free lands, liberty of conscience and free education offer to it a prospect as boundless as it is inspiring. As every narrow sentiment of nationality is here becoming lost and merged in the more exalted sense of humanity, so the distinctions of class and the jealousies between capital and labor will lose themselves in an equality of education, and the application of science to the laws of individual, social, and national life. CHAPTER V. AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. "The provision in the Mosaic code, (Leviticus, xxvi, 35,) that the Israelites should abstain from auriculture every seventh year, was probably intended to prevent the soil from being ex. hausted by excessive cultivation." AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DUE TO THE FARMERS--THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES WANT OF SYSTEM-COTTON AND TOBACCO-Gov. HAMMOND ON SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURE-GEORGIA SILK CULTURE-Gov. COLLIER ON THE WANTS OF ALABAMA- THE OLD DOMINION AND THE OLD COMMONWEALTH CONTRASTED-EMI. GRATION-FIRST AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES AND JOURNALS WERE ESTABLISHED IN THE SOUTH-DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRY WOULD HAVE SECURED EMANCIPATIONLOUISIANA-TEXAS. The history of agriculture in the United States covers a brief period as compared with that of other nations, yet perhaps on no other part of the earth's surface has the lesson of man's true relation to the land been more impressively written. Our historians have scarcely deigned to notice any of the important facts concerning it; among the storied names of eminent men, we find soldiers, sailors, authors and inventors, while those of the benefactors of agriculture have no place. Yet it was to this class that America owes her independence. Tories swarmed in the cities; and it was commonly stated in England that the Revolution was one of "yeoman, who left their plows |